Friday, December 25, 2009

Christmas has had a long and varied history. It was been celebrated for centuries by different people, at different times, in different places, and in many different ways. Here you will find links to information about the different ways that the holiday we know as Christmas has been celebrated, or not celebrated, over the years.

Regardless of the very interesting origins and history behind it, Christmas is a Christian holiday celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ. While we're enjoying all of our gifts and traditions, let us not forget the real reason for the season!

Friday, December 11, 2009

Four days after LSU and Penn State were invited to the 2010 Capital One Bowl, the two head coaches and athletic directors involved met in Orlando, Fla., on Thursday to sign a bowl contract and hold court with a handful of media members.

LSU’s Les Miles and Penn State’s Joe Paterno took turns talking about the reward for their teams and the challenge ahead in one of the more attractive non-BCS bowl games of the season.

The 13th-ranked Tigers (9-3) and 11th-ranked Nittany Lions (10-2) square off at noon Jan. 1 in the Florida Citrus Bowl. ABC will televise the game.

“We look forward to this game, and it’s going to be a great setting,” Miles said. “It’s historically a great bowl game and played New Year’s Day. It’s exactly how we would want to end our season. The matchup with the Big Ten and Joe Paterno and a quality Nittany Lion team will be everything that we want.”

Especially if LSU caps this season like it has Miles’ previous four.

The Tigers are 4-0 in bowl games under Miles, with lopsided victories against Miami, Notre Dame, Ohio State and Georgia Tech.

Those wins, as well as what LSU has done this season, caught the attention of Paterno, who has more coaching victories (393) than any coach in Football Bowl Sub-Division history.

“Getting an opportunity to play against a team as good as LSU is tremendous,” Paterno said.

Paterno turns 83 in 10 days and will coach in the Capital One Bowl (previously the Tangerine Bowl) for the fifth time, the first time since 2003 when Auburn edged the Lions 13-9.

As he did the day this season’s matchup was announced, the Penn State coach said the trip was a fitting reward for a team that for the second year in a row was a relevant factor in the national championship hunt.

The Lions’ only losses this season came against Big Ten foes headed for BCS games: Iowa 21-10 in State College, Pa., and Ohio State 24-7 on the road.

“I think we’re a pretty good football team,” Paterno said. “We played hard all year and stuck together after we lost to a couple of good football teams. … I hope we can play our best game of the year because we will need to against LSU.”

Now Paterno and his team close out the season on New Year’s Day in Florida — the 24th time in the coach’s 44 seasons Penn State will finish in a January Bowl.

“I have 17 grandkids and the oldest one is 14,” Paterno said. “For the last two weeks, they’ve all been asking me, ‘Are we going to Orlando? We want to go to Orlando!’ ”

Miles also talked about the reward of a postseason bowl, but noted that there’s business to tend to as well.

“We look at it as both,” he said. “The opportunity to have competitively played yourself into an advantage position where you can play for a bowl championship — we recognize that as the reason why we’re here. We also recognize that it’s through achievement that you are allowed to play in the Capital One Bowl, and so there is going to be a reward.

“There will be the opportunity to see Orlando and the sights, and that will be the reward. The greatest reward will be the opportunity to play well and to honor a very quality opponent with our best effort.”

In his nine years as a head coach, Miles has never coached against Paterno. He was on the Michigan staff for a pair of meetings in the early 1990s after the Lions joined the Big Ten — the Wolverines won at Penn State 21-13 in 1993 and the Lions exacted revenge with a 31-24 triumph in Ann Arbor, Mich., in 1994 in a showdown of top-five teams. Penn State finished 12-0 that season, one of five undefeated campaigns under Paterno.

So Thursday’s face-to-face meeting was a first for Miles as a head coach. But growing up in Ohio, Miles knew who Paterno was. He said he visited the campus in State College, Pa., as a young assistant and even then didn’t understand the magnitude of Paterno’s impact.

“I visited Penn State probably so early in my career I don’t know who I was representing at the time,” Miles said. “(Paterno) has always been, and Penn State has always been, a program that has done it right. He has competed at the very highest level and his leadership has been exemplary. Anybody in football follows Joe Paterno and understands the tradition behind that Penn State uniform.”

Friday, November 27, 2009

BATON ROUGE -- The LSU football team will have a new look when they take the field on Saturday against Arkansas as the Tigers will be wearing the Nike Pro Combat uniform for the season-finale.

LSU, along with Nike, unveiled the uniform at a pep rally on campus on Monday afternoon. Nike worked closely with coaches and administrators at LSU and took great care to bring inspiration to the Nike Pro Combat uniforms that the Tigers will wear on Saturday. The uniform will be worn only for this week’s game against Arkansas.

The Tigers will sport a new look from head to toe on Saturday as the Tigers will be outfitted with a new look in everything from the helmet, to cleats, to the gloves. The jersey is white with purple numbers and gold accents, while the pants are white with a purple “L” on the hip along with a purple and gold stripe down each side of the leg.

The Tigers will wear the Nike Zoom Vapor Fly cleats, which are white and gold and feature a purple Nike Swoosh. The bottom of the cleats are gold in color as well. The Tiger receivers will be outfitted with the Nike Vapor Trail gloves, which display the eye of the tiger on the palm of each glove.

“This is a great uniform, both from the look as well as how lightweight it is,” senior running back Charles Scott said. “I think the team is going to like wearing these new uniforms for our final home game of the season. I wish I could be out there with them in this uniform.”

Scott, along with Richard Murphy, modeled the uniforms at the unveiling on Monday. Both players are injured and will not play against Arkansas.

Head coach Les Miles showed the team the uniform for the first time on Monday afternoon in a team meeting.

LSU joins 10 other schools from across the country to take part in this venture with Nike. Other schools include: Clemson, Florida, Florida State, Miami, Virginia Tech, Missouri, Ohio State, Oklahoma, Texas and TCU.

Nike designed the Nike Pro Combat uniform to address the evolution of the game: Today’s players are stronger and faster and the collisions are more violent and explosive than ever before.

Superior Lightweight Innovation

The Nike Pro Combat uniform is 37 percent lighter than current designs (23.7 ounces vs. 37.4 ounces). Nike utilized a four-way stretch twill that does not hold sweat or water and as a result, the new uniforms are 46 percent lighter than the current designs when wet. Overall, the Nike Pro Combat uniform, when wet, is still lighter than the teams’ current designs when completely dry.

Designed from the inside out, the Nike Pro Combat uniform begins with the Nike Pro Combat padded base layer. Strategically placed padding zones in the Nike Pro Combat Deflex shorts cover the thighs, hips and tailbone. The padding zones are composed of dual-density foam cells that absorb, deflect and disperse the impact of on-field collisions. A foam grid intersects the cells to maximize impact absorption and increase flexibility. A hard plastic shield covers the thigh padding where impact frequently occurs.

With the padding incorporated into the base layer, players gain greater mobility over traditional padding and the outer uniform becomes a lightweight, breathable shell with a sleek, explosive look.

“Players need their uniforms to be as light as possible so they can play the game at top speed,” said Kris Aman, Global VP and General Manager for Nike Athletic Training, which includes football. “The Nike Pro Combat uniform is a modern system of dress that is dramatically lighter while providing durability and protection.”

Nike scrutinized every detail of the Nike Pro Combat uniform with the goal of shedding as much weight as possible, right down to D-ring on the belt. Nike opted for a titanium D-ring, which is extremely durable and 66 percent lighter than the standard steel belt enclosure.

Engineered high-tenacity yarn inspired by Nike Flywire is incorporated into the high-impact shoulder area. The belt loops have been padded to provide added protection to the hip area without the bulk of traditional hip pads.

The new uniforms also feature improved ventilation and breathability. Side ribbed piping on the uniform pant has been replaced with sublimated Nike Dri-FIT mesh, which not only shaves ounces off of the pant weight but also aids evaporation in key areas. Nike Dri-FIT mesh wraps behind the knees, a key cooling zone on the body. By adding innovative evaporation and cooling zones, the player’s body expends less energy regulating body temperature, leaving more energy for the game.

Completing this true system of dress for football is the new Nike Zoom Vapor Fly cleat, which Nike customized for each team featuring their team colors, team logo and chrome-plated outsole. This incredibly lightweight cleat at just 10 ounces is available in 2010. It features Zoom Air cushioning in the heel and Flywire engineering in the medial and lateral quarter panels.

Thursday, November 26, 2009

Thanksgiving Day in America is a time to offer thanks, of family gatherings and holiday meals. A time of turkeys, stuffing, and pumpkin pie. A time for Indian corn, holiday parades and giant balloons.

So here for your entertainment are some fun Holiday things for you and your family. We've got stories of the Pilgrims and the first Thanksgiving, turkeys to take home, holiday pictures for the kids to print and color, tasty holiday recipes and e-greeting cards to send your friends and family. We hope you find something you like!

Thanksgiving is celebrated on the 4th Thursday of November, which this year (2009) is November 26th.

Wednesday, November 11, 2009

For 90 years, the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month has been a remembrance of those who served America in time of war.

But the Nov. 11 Veterans Day commemoration began as a day to celebrate peace — the silencing of the guns of World War I, "The Great War," which claimed the lives of more than 15 million soldiers and civilians.

On that day in 1918, at the 11th hour, Germany signed an armistice with the Allied Powers — including the U.S., France, Britain, Japan and Italy — ending major hostilities in a war that nearly wiped out a generation of men.

A full peace was concluded the next year in France at the Palace of Versailles, and the first Armistice Day was proclaimed and celebrated by President Woodrow Wilson on the anniversary of the ceasefire: Nov. 11, 1919.

It was fully established by Congress as a legal holiday in 1938.

But Armistice Day honored veterans of only World War I, essentially ignoring millions of soldiers who served in peacetime or fought in World War II, Korea and other engagements.

So in 1954 Congress extended the holiday to honor all vets, giving it the name Veterans Day, which it has kept for 55 years.

Today, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, there are some 23.2 million veterans in the United States. That includes 2.6 million who served during World War II, 2.8 million who served in the Korean War, 7.8 million in the Vietnam War, 5.2 million in the Gulf War and about 1.7 million who have served in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Nearly 120,000 are still stationed in Iraq, and about 68,000 will be deployed in Afghanistan by the end of the year, according to the Census.

Just one American veteran who served in World War I is still alive: 108-year-old Frank Buckles, who drove ambulances in England and France after enlisting at the age of 16. Buckles also fought in World War II and was taken prisoner by the Japanese.

Friday, November 06, 2009

High on the list of strange but true facts about the LSU-Alabama series through the years, and especially this decade, is how little home-field advantage has meant.

Since 1970, the road team in this game is 27-11-1. The road team won every game between 1981-89 except 1985 when the Tigers and Tide fought to a 14-14 deadlock in Baton Rouge.

Since 1982, LSU is 10-3 against Alabama in either Birmingham or Tuscaloosa, with four wins in a row this decade in at Bryant-Denny Stadium.

LSU coach Les Miles has been the architect of the last two wins in Tuscaloosa — a 16-13 overtime thriller when the teams last met when both were ranked in the top 10 in 2005 and 41-34 in 2007 when the Tigers rallied with a pair of touchdowns in the game’s final 2:49.

“I think we’ve had good teams,” Miles said about the four-game wining streak at Bryant-Denny. “I think those guys know how to play on the road, play with poise, play with the confidence that they were going to be able to get it done and played well.”

As has Alabama. Two years ago the Crimson Tide was ranked No. 17 and on a three-game winning streak when LSU got to town.

The Tigers struggled when quarterback Matt Flynn got picked off three times in the first half, helping Alabama take a 27-17 lead late in the third quarter.

“I felt our team was very confident going into that game,” Miles said.

“I felt like certainly we recognized that was a great team we were playing. Every time we play Alabama — whether it’s on the road or at home — we recognize it’s going to be a very competitive game and matching two of the finest collegiate programs in college football.”

Alabama leads the series 44-23-5 and has a slim 9-8 edge in games played in Tuscaloosa. During Paul “Bear” Bryant’s tenure at Alabama, most games between the Tigers and Tide were played in Birmingham.

LSU and Alabama have also played occasional games in Mobile and Montgomery.

Yeah, I know... the Saban vs. LSU hype is starting to die down a little now that it's been three years. But I don't care! To me, this game is Saban Bowl III... and it's going to be a tough one! If the Tigers can pull out a W tomorrow, they can go all the way!!!

Monday, November 02, 2009

NEW YORK — The new Navy assault ship USS New York, built with World Trade Center steel, arrived in its namesake city Monday with a 21-gun salute near the site of the 2001 terrorist attack.

First responders, families of Sept. 11 victims and the public gathered Monday at a waterfront viewing area, where they could see the crew standing at attention along the deck of the battleship gray vessel.

The big ship paused. Then the shots were fired, with a cracking sound, in three bursts.

The bow of the $1 billion ship, built in Louisiana, contains about 7.5 tons of steel from the fallen towers.

"It's a transformation ... from something really twisted and ugly," said Rosaleen Tallon, who lost her firefighter brother, Sean, on 9/11. "I'm proud that our military is using that steel."

Tallon said her brother, who was also was a Marine, also would have been proud.

JoAnn Atlas, of Howells, N.Y., who lost her husband, fire Lt. Gregg Atlas, draped a flag-themed banner along the fence. The names of emergency workers who died were written on the red stripes.

"We have to remember. It's a way to honor them," she said.

Of the 361 sailors serving aboard the ship, around 13 percent are from New York state, which is higher than would normally be the case, Murphy said. There were many requests from Navy personnel to serve on the ship, which will carry some 250 Marines.

After the ground zero stop, the ship — ecorted by about two dozen tugboats and other vessels — headed up the Hudson River toward the George Washington Bridge. After a U-turn there, it was to head south to Pier 88. An official commissioning ceremony is scheduled for Saturday.

The New York will remain in the city through Veteran's Day and then head to Norfolk, Va., for about a year of crew training and exercises, Murphy said.

The ship is 684 feet long and can carry as many as 800 Marines. Its flight deck that can handle helicopters and the MV-22 Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft.

It was scheduled to be built before the terrorist attacks. About a year later, the announcement came that the ship would bear the name New York to honor the city, state, and those who died.

It's the latest in a line of Navy ships to bear that name. The others included a Spanish-American War-era cruiser, a battleship that served in World Wars I and II and a nuclear submarine retired from the fleet in 1997.

The ship is technically known as a San Antonio-class amphibious dock vessel. Four vessels in that class are in service, the USS San Antonio, USS New Orleans, USS Mesa Verde and USS Green Bay. Four others are being built. Of those, two also have been named in connection with the Sept. 11 attacks.

The USS Arlington was named to honor the attack on the Pentagon. The USS Somerset was named after the county in Pennsylvania where United Airlines flight 93 crashed.

Saturday, October 31, 2009

Halloween's origins date back to the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain (pronounced sow-in).

The Celts, who lived 2,000 years ago in the area that is now Ireland, the United Kingdom, and northern France, celebrated their new year on November 1. This day marked the end of summer and the harvest and the beginning of the dark, cold winter, a time of year that was often associated with human death. Celts believed that on the night before the new year, the boundary between the worlds of the living and the dead became blurred. On the night of October 31, they celebrated Samhain, when it was believed that the ghosts of the dead returned to earth. In addition to causing trouble and damaging crops, Celts thought that the presence of the otherworldly spirits made it easier for the Druids, or Celtic priests, to make predictions about the future. For a people entirely dependent on the volatile natural world, these prophecies were an important source of comfort and direction during the long, dark winter.

To commemorate the event, Druids built huge sacred bonfires, where the people gathered to burn crops and animals as sacrifices to the Celtic deities.

During the celebration, the Celts wore costumes, typically consisting of animal heads and skins, and attempted to tell each other's fortunes. When the celebration was over, they re-lit their hearth fires, which they had extinguished earlier that evening, from the sacred bonfire to help protect them during the coming winter.

By A.D. 43, Romans had conquered the majority of Celtic territory. In the course of the four hundred years that they ruled the Celtic lands, two festivals of Roman origin were combined with the traditional Celtic celebration of Samhain.

The first was Feralia, a day in late October when the Romans traditionally commemorated the passing of the dead. The second was a day to honor Pomona, the Roman goddess of fruit and trees. The symbol of Pomona is the apple and the incorporation of this celebration into Samhain probably explains the tradition of "bobbing" for apples that is practiced today on Halloween.

By the 800s, the influence of Christianity had spread into Celtic lands. In the seventh century, Pope Boniface IV designated November 1 All Saints' Day, a time to honor saints and martyrs. It is widely believed today that the pope was attempting to replace the Celtic festival of the dead with a related, but church-sanctioned holiday. The celebration was also called All-hallows or All-hallowmas (from Middle English Alholowmesse meaning All Saints' Day) and the night before it, the night of Samhain, began to be called All-hallows Eve and, eventually, Halloween. Even later, in A.D. 1000, the church would make November 2 All Souls' Day, a day to honor the dead. It was celebrated similarly to Samhain, with big bonfires, parades, and dressing up in costumes as saints, angels, and devils. Together, the three celebrations, the eve of All Saints', All Saints', and All Souls', were called Hallowmas.

Friday, October 30, 2009

Billy Cannon’s Halloween Run. Just the mention of those four words is enough to bring a sense of pride and joy to any LSU football fan.

Saturday's game against Tulane marks the 50th anniversary of the legendary game on October 31, 1959 in which LSU running back Billy Cannon returned a punt 89 yards for a touchdown.

The return turned out to be the only touchdown of the game as the top-ranked Tigers defeated the No. 3 Ole Miss Rebels 7-3.

Cannon, now 72, admits that while he may be getting older, his memory of the run that Halloween night is still fresh in his mind.

“My mind is getting fuzzy but the run isn’t,” Cannon said. “The games that you win or lose big drift away. But the ones where the outcome of the game depends on every play, those are the games that you remember vividly.”

Both the Tigers and the Rebels were undefeated heading into the game, which only added to the hype surrounding the already heated rivalry.

“The week of the game it was just crazy,” Cannon recalled. “Everyone just wanted to talk football.”

The game also marked the first time that the stadium sold out since new bleachers were installed in the south end zone. Over 67,500 people crammed into Tiger Stadium to watch the much anticipated matchup.

“To be playing before that many people with them sitting in the aisles and everywhere else, it was quite a stir,” said Cannon.

LSU trailed 3-0 through three hard-fought quarters. As Cannon stood at his own 11-yard line with just under 10 minutes remaining, he knew that in order for the Tigers to have a chance to win the game he was going to have to make something happen.

“It doesn’t take a genius to look at the scoreboard and figure out you are down and that you are running out of time,” Cannon said. “Before the punt I said to myself that if I have a chance I’m going to take this one back up the field because if we are going to do something we are going to have to do it pretty quick.”

And Cannon did just that.

Ole Miss’ Jake Gibbs tried to punt the ball out of bounds, but instead the ball took a bounce at the 11-yard line right into Cannon’s hands.

“I got the perfect bounce,” Cannon said. “If I had caught it on the fly I don’t think it would have worked out the same. I think the bounce made them relax a little bit and they were just surprised when the ball bounced straight to me. I was just as surprised as they were.”

After fielding the ball, the 6-foot-1, 225-pound Cannon fought his way through seven would-be tacklers before finally breaking free around the 50-yard line. He then galloped his way into the end zone and into LSU history as the Tiger Stadium crowd erupted.

“There was a guy in the stands that was in the box seats that jumped out onto the field,” Cannon said. “He jumped on my back and he was beating me to death. One of my teammates, Donnie Daye, came over and pulled him off of me. He was so happy and going crazy. He was just going crazy and the whole stands were going crazy.”

Every year during the week of the LSU-Ole Miss game the black-and-white replay is shown numerous times on TV. These replays provide not only nostalgia for the fans of LSU football, but also for Cannon and his teammates.

“Over the years it has become a contest of who can point out what,” Cannon joked. “We have a lot of fun with it.”

“When I’m with Lynn LeBlanc, Lynn always says ‘Watch this block! Watch this block right here!’ because it was him making the block that took three guys down,” Cannon said, laughing. “But I tell him ‘Lynn I was by that guy before you even blocked anybody!’”

“Red (Brodnax) makes a block late in the play and Lynn accuses him of clipping and putting the whole team in jeopardy with the clip, but of course Red denies it,” Cannon added.

Fifty years have now passed since that Halloween night and Cannon’s punt return is still a prominent part of LSU history. But Cannon said he doesn’t want it to be remembered as an individual effort because it was a team effort.

“Not one of us on that entire team would have ever told you we were going to do something that would be so remembered 50 years later. We were there for the day, the moment, the game, and that period of time. That is all we cared about.”

This launch shows how challenging rocket science really is: Blue skies over the launch pad in Florida hid a variety of challenges, including static-filled clouds and high-altitude winds.

Launching a rocket through these conditions isn't like a plane taking off from a landing strip: It's more like shooting a rubberband through a keyhole from across a parking lot.

At 11:26, NASA resumed the 4-minute launch countdown that had been on pause since 8 a.m Tuesday morning. The ignition system armed, the water and electrical systems activated, and at 11:30 a.m., the Ares 1-X experimental rocket blasted off through clear skies from NASA's launch pad in Florida.

The ship passed Mach 2, achieving speeds of over 1,540 mph. Then, at 22.2 nautical miles up in the air, "burnout" occurred, a stage at which the two segments of the rocket separate and the capsule falls back to Earth.

The test rocket includes a real solid-rocket first stage, with a mock second stage and dummy Orion crew capsule on top to simulate the intended weight and size of Ares I. Ares I-X is the tallest booster in service or about to fly and stands about 327 feet high — 14 stories taller than NASA's space shuttles.

This rocket could eventually take man into space, back to the moon. In an actual moon launch, the second stage of the rocket will contain the liquid propellant that carries the capsule further into space, and ultimately into orbit.

Clouds, snagged tethers and even a misdirected cargo ship within the danger area in the Atlantic Ocean contributed to an eventual postponement in Monday's scheduled launch of the Ares 1-X.